“I’m a belly dancer. Long before I knew him, he used to come and watch me perform because he thought I was cute.“ “Did you have a strategy about approaching her, or were you just hoping that one day she would notice you?” “I’d planted a bit of a seed: I pierced the leader of her dance troupe’s belly button, and I was like, ‘What’s her name? Is she single? I like her.’ But the troupe leader dismissed me and said, ‘Yeah, everybody likes her.’”

I’ve been ambivalent about him since his comments about the Florida State rape case in 2006. But I don’t get how people can defend him while crucifying Curley, Schultz, and Spanier. Their moral culpability is roughly equal, on a sliding scale from really fucking bad to hubris.

I just can’t stand the hypocrisy. I can’t even look at FB anymore because the status updates and comments make me so angry.

“I come from a small, conservative town, and spent my first two years of college in a small town campus. This year, I moved to a large campus to be comfortable with being gay and not worry about what anyone else thinks. I’ve realized that while your environment is important, being gay is more about you than others. Before coming out to everyone else, you have to come out to yourself, and love yourself enough to be who you are.”

I’m getting the ball rolling on my project, The Treehouse Cats, Cat Sanctuary. It is what it sounds like: treehouses for cats! My family is moving to a property in the mountains with 17 acres of land, and my dream is to set up colony housing in several treehouses in the woods.

The two rarely photogenic black fluffballs pictured above are my inspiration for this project. After learning about the difficulties shelters have with getting black cats adopted, I immediately wanted to do something about it. My original idea was to have a black cat sanctuary, but I know I’m not going to be able to turn away a cat who needs a home if I have the space for it in a treehouse, so I’m just going for a sanctuary for all cats who have trouble finding a forever home.

Here’s my working mission statement:

“The Treehouse Cat Sanctuary will be a no-kill, non-profit dedicated to giving elderly, sick, stray, or otherwise difficult to get adopted cats in Central Pennsylvania a safe, comfortable, and healthy home for the rest of their lives. The TCS will use the unique cat treehouses, support of local artists, and an extensive internet presence to attract and create a community around the Treehouse Cats to both better the cats’ lives and to educate people about cat care and colony-housing.”

I know tumblr loves cats, so this is a good place to look for support, even if it’s just a nice message or a reblog on this post. This first campaign is to get things established and to start collecting an online community who want to support this project.

Once I have all of these things established, I’m hoping I can build enough of an online community to continue gathering donations to maintain the best quality of life for the cats. Once I have a cat, it will always be comfortable and healthy no matter what I have to do; however, people’s donations will make sure they’re not only living a good life, but the best life. Plus, the more money I raise, the more cats I can save and give a good home.

Cats have always been very important to my family and me. I think they’re wonderful creatures, and every single one of them deserves to be happy and safe (all animals do, and maybe if this goes well I can expand to more kinds of animals, but I’m starting out with cats).

If all goes according to plan, I’d like to start building by the beginning of August to give myself plenty of time to get things perfect before winter. However, I do want to get the ball rolling on getting all the official stuff done and publishing the website asap, so that the business side of the project is well establish before I get the first cats.

I’m excited to make a difference in these cats lives, and I appreciate any and all support I can get to begin this adventure!”